Allard Beutel<br />Headquarters, Washington July 7, 2003<br />(Phone: 202/358-4769)<br /><br />Kylie Moritz<br />Johnson Space Center, Houston<br />(Phone: 281/483-5111)<br /><br />RELEASE: C03-v<br /><br />SPACE STATION REPLACEMENT BATTERY CONTRACT AWARDED<br /><br /> NASA has awarded a contract to The Boeing Company, <br />Houston, for the procurement of 40 International Space <br />Station replacement battery units. The contract facilitates <br />the fabrication, assembly, testing and delivery of these <br />battery units in advance for the replacement of on-orbit <br />batteries.<br /><br />Each of four power element truss structures on the Space <br />Station, P6, P4, S4, and S6, is designed with 12 batteries <br />that store power generated by solar arrays. The batteries, <br />which are one meter wide, 94 centimeters long and 48 <br />centimeters high, are designed to last for about six-and-a-<br />half years and can be replaced while in orbit. Boeing is <br />presently under contract to deliver replacement batteries <br />for the P6 truss. This new contract requires the purchase of <br />replacement batteries for the P4, S4 and S6 elements, with <br />an additional four batteries as spares.<br /><br />The firm-fixed-price contract, valued at $145 million, <br />covers work from Feb. 20, 2003, through Sept. 30, 2010. A <br />Boeing subcontractor, Space Systems/Loral, in Palo Alto, <br />Calif., will perform the fabrication and assembly work.